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Billy Crystal to Host Ninth Oscars With Possible Muppets Assist

Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Comic actor Billy Crystal will host
the Academy Awards for the ninth time after replacing Eddie
Murphy and may be joined onstage by the Muppets.

Crystal, 63, will emcee Hollywood’s biggest awards for the
first time since 2004, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts &
Sciences said yesterday in a statement. The show will be
telecast on Feb. 26 on Walt Disney Co.’s ABC.

“It’s great to have him back,” Disney Chief Executive
Officer Robert Iger said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
“I’m a big fan of Billy Crystal, and I think the audience loves
him too.”

The annual telecast gives studios a chance to promote
movies, often with a spoof of the best-picture candidates in the
opening segment. Disney, based in Burbank, California, releases
“The Muppets” on Nov. 23, featuring children’s characters
Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.

“I wouldn’t count the Muppets out,” Iger said. “I like
the idea of Billy and Miss Piggy or Billy and Kermit on stage.”

Murphy, 50, withdrew as host this week, after the producer
he had been working with, Brett Ratner, quit the show. Ratner
was criticized for making controversial comments including a gay
slur and recounting his sexual escapades with actresses.

Crystal will be working with filmmaker Brian Grazer, who
agreed to replace Ratner as a producer on the show, and with Don
Mischer, who helped run last year’s show and has also overseen
television’s Emmy awards.

“Am doing the Oscars so the young woman in the pharmacy
will stop asking my name when I pick up my prescriptions,”
Crystal, 63, wrote on his Twitter account. “Looking forward
to the show.”

Shrinking Audience

The academy had turned to Murphy after the audience for
last year’s show fell 9.1 percent. The change in host and
producer may not derail planning as the academy last year waited
until Nov. 29 before announcing hosts Anne Hathaway and James
Franco for the 2011 awards show.

The academy has also tinkered with the best-picture
category, expanding it to 10 films this past year in an effort
to include more popular movies.

Five to 10 nominees will be announced on Jan. 24. The
television audience for the Oscars has historically been biggest
when blockbusters like “Avatar,” the highest-grossing movie of
all time, are up for the top honors.

Grazer, 60, who produced the Oscar winner “A Beautiful
Mind,” is the longtime partner of Ron Howard for films
including “Apollo 13.” Crystal’s movies include “Analyze
This” and 1989’s “When Harry Met Sally.”

Disney, the world’s largest theme park operator and owner
of ESPN and Pixar animation studio, rose 2.5 percent to $34.64
yesterday in New York trading. The shares have slid 7.7 percent
this year.